ATLANTA — The trial involving rapper Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang continues Wednesday evidence and testimony.
Law enforcement officers and others are due up on the witness stand as they continue to examine the January 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas.
Proceedings continue after a pitched moment in court Monday when Judge Paige Reese Whitaker expressed frustration and admonished the prosecution before denying another motion for mistrial.
Young Thug, YSL trial live stream | Wednesday, Oct. 2
Whitaker delivered fiery remarks to the prosecution suggesting the team is "so unorganized, that you are throwing this case together as you try it."
"I can't figure out what it is," Whitaker said to prosecutors in the courtroom Monday afternoon. "But it is baffling to me that somebody with the number of years of experience that you have, time after time after time, continues to seemingly purposefully hide the ball to the extent that you possibly can for as long as you possibly can."
Whitaker appeared frustrated as she shared strong words with Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love over how she was handling the case. The judge's words were in response to a dispute over hearsay evidence the prosecution attempted to introduce via a witness. Atlanta rapper Young Thug's attorney, Keith Adams, called for a mistrial.
"This case is being made much more difficult for everybody because of the haphazard way in which it is being presented," Whitaker said to Love before calling for a recess.
Upon her return, Whitaker ultimately denied the motion, saying she didn't believe Love was trying to get a mistrial just to try the case again. She explained that she hoped it was just "poor lawyering" from the prosecution.
Recent case developments
Quindarrius Zachary, aka QZ or Lil D, on the stand
The state ordered Zachary's arrest on Sept. 13 to ensure he'd testify in the case. After two days in the Fulton County Jail, Zachary's attorney said he was hospitalized for treatment of his sickle cell disease.
"He will not live, judge. I talked to the family, and in the last four months, he's been in and out of the hospital 10 times, " the attorney said on Sept. 16. "He's extremely sick. He will not survive."
The state released Zachary to home confinement. His testimony included known rapper Young Thug for 15 years, describing their relationship as "aight" and admitting they have had disagreements in the past. He also provided key details about events surrounding the murder of "Nut," corroborating earlier statements by another witness, Kenneth "Lil Woody" Copeland.
His health complications then moved to the forefront as he said pain medication made him forget his testimony and then he openly said it wasn't truthful.
"Do you remember substantially less today than you did on Friday?" prosecutor Adriane Love asked. "Friday, I was probably on like five Percocet, 10 milligrams of morphine," Zachary replied. "I don't remember nothing."
Zachary, who is testifying under an immunity deal with the state, changed his line when defense attorney Max Schardt began questioning him.
"Let's be real. When you said, 'I don't know' and 'I don't recall' to some of those questions, that wasn't the truth, was it?" Schardt asked.
"No," Zachary said after a long pause.
"That wasn't the truth, was it?" Schardt reaffirmed.
"No," Zachary said again.
"Mounk Tounk" takes the stand
Prosecutor Adriane Love initially said Sledge's testimony would be only three hours, but it stretched over multiple full days. Sledge negotiated a plea deal in 2022 after being indicted alongside Jeffery Williams—better known as the rapper Young Thug—and the other co-defendants currently on trial.
He pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
In addition to 15 years of probation, Sledge acknowledged 16 factual statements that will likely be used to prosecute his co-defendants.
Lil Woody becomes a star witness
Prosecutors hoped Woody would help build their case against the rapper Young Thug and several co-defendants. They allege YSL is a gang — not a record label — responsible for several violent crimes.
Instead, his testimony brought months of questions and controversy that dramatically changed the course of the trial.
Considered a key witness before the trial, Woody largely declined to answer questions from prosecutors after taking the stand, often telling them he doesn't recall events he was allegedly involved in, statements he made, or even things that happened in court.
It became his calling card, so much so that he actually released a song called "I Don't Recall," which is detailed lower in this story.
During his testimony, he said he constantly lied to the police in order to protect himself and his family and that jurors shouldn't believe any of his previous statements. He also told the court he blamed rapper Young Thug for crimes he said he didn't commit.
"The police kept locking me up for whatever they could," he stated. "And they keep bringing up Thug name, so what I did to get them off me was 'Thug did this, Thug did that.'"
Lil Woody, who cannot be prosecuted for anything he says on the stand, told prosecutors that he didn't recall the answers to their questions dozens of times and begged them to leave him alone.
"The police told me they want a big fish. And I'm a little fish," he said. "When they told me that, my only motive was to convince them that I was telling them the truth about this guy in my mind."
In an effort to clear up questions about Woody's immunity deal, state prosecutors called an ex parte meeting with Woody, his fill-in attorney and the judge.
The defense team raised concerns about not being included in that meeting. Young Thug's attorney, Brian Steel, was held in contempt of court and sentenced to 20 days in jail for asking about the ex-parte meeting and refusing to tell Glanville who told him about its existence.
They motioned for the recusal of Glanville — and a mistrial, which Glanville denied. Judge Rachel Krause determined Judge Glanville probably should not have ruled on those motions himself and ordered him off the case.
The case was assigned to Judge Shukura Ingram, who recused herself. Judge Paige Whitaker then took control.
The extraordinary curveball in court sidetracked proceedings for two months.